Next Contract

[Gibson335]

Anyone with a KCOM/Capita/emPSN package...are you happy with what you have or will you be looking to go elsewhere come renewal time?

If you want to move on, what's the main reason?

Are you considering moving it in-house? If not, any providers in mind?

 

Just wondering what the feeling is, and perhaps whether just one of those 3 companies spoils it for the others ( I think you may know which one I refer to).

 

Thanks in anticipation of any feedback.

[Jobos]

We're locked in till 2016 and that date can't come soon enough for us. The LA is looking at alternative filter but it looks like it will cost the school extra money to have it.

[Edu-IT]

I imagine we'll investigate options to ensure best value for money.

[Jobos]

I imagine we'll investigate options to ensure best value for money.

 

Pointless having cheap is it doesn't work and it's the cost of things HT look at without realising the technical implications. I for one didn't know the contract with the emPSN was for 4 years. Had it been an annual contract we would have left before now.

[janeb6]

Hi, I'm from emPSN. Just wondering what the issues are and if I can help get them resolved for you.

[Jobos]

Replied via PM.

[korifugi]

Moving away from that particular range - as I'd rather nail my eyelids to a passing train than continue to deal with one of the companies listed.

[Edu-IT]

I don't think Capita have had a particular good time recently, with regards to the emPSN service.

 

We'll be exploring what else is out there.

 

We only use KCOM for connectivity. We handle the filtering in house and our email is with Office 365.

[Gibson335]

Moving away from that particular range - as I'd rather nail my eyelids to a passing train than continue to deal with one of the companies listed.

 

I suspect I know which one - should be a capital offence.

[pete]

I don't think Capita have had a particular good time recently, with regards to the emPSN service.

 

Pretty much every other EMBC mailing contains a "Capita have broken this and would like to apologise" of late.

[MatthewL]

Personally from what I see in Schools do it yourself, far more control and a better service and probably a better price too!

[Jobos]

Had a couple more problems yesterday. First the school website went down and after checking further many other city schools were down as well , then later on I was unable to ftp to our website. It doesn't sound like much but I'm wasting lots of time over simple things like that.

[pete]

We're not with Capita, we just get to watch the trainwrecks.

 

KCOM, however had an Internet outage on Friday and now again today (Monday). Which, were I a cynical person, would make me think it didn't get fixed properly on Friday.

[synaesthesia]

Surprised kcom are still running; they've been utterly, utterly slated in the past for awful/non-existant abuse handling. Wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

[pete]

Surprised kcom are still running; they've been utterly, utterly slated in the past for awful/non-existant abuse handling. Wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

 

We get free Internet until August 2016. Opportunity cost of roughly ~£12K/yr. We have been approaching the "it's actually cheaper in terms of lost productivity to buy connectivity elsewhere" break-even point for a while though.

[Jobos]

I'm now unable to login to either of my joomla sites as it's giving an 500 internal server error but at least the internet is up now!

[ataylor]

Kcom had reported issues on Friday and Monday, Does not help when the internet goes down during exams. We will be looking into alternatives.

[pete]

Kcom had reported issues on Friday and Monday, Does not help when the internet goes down during exams. We will be looking into alternatives.

 

Are you getting upload weirdness? I've been chasing a ticket about two weeks and they're hiding from me and everyone I can cajole into chasing them on my behalf.